We focused on punctuating dialogue today. The 'said so-and-so' is called a dialogue tag, and when that dialogue tag appears first, it is followed by a comma. The punctuation at the end of the dialogue is inside the quotation marks.

We also discussed adverbs. Most words that end in the suffix -ly are adverbs. Not all of them, but most of them. Adverbs' job is to describe a verb. So in the third sentence, "Hera would smile calmly," calmly is the adverb that describes the action of smiling (would smile). Instead of using the adjective calm, the adverb calmly is needed.

We started out today by continuing to analyze the author's use of language in "The Jabberwocky" by discussing the meaning of the difficult words in the text, the words that Lewis Carrol invented.

What are slithy toves and how do they gyre and gimble? What do the mimsy borograves look like? What are mome raths and how do they outgrabe? What is a Jubjub bird? Why should you shun the frumious Bandersnatch? What kind of a sword is a vorpal sword? What's a Tumtum tree, and what makes that tree good for resting by? What does a Jabberwock look like with eyes of flame, burbling? What are slithy toves and how do they gyre and gimble? What do the mimsy borograves look like? What are mome raths and how do they outgrabe?

We don't know, and therefore, we get to make it up. I assigned each group a character, and that group was responsible for acting out that role. The slithy tove group decides what a gyre and gimble is and how the slithy tove does it. The Jabberwocky group decides how to act out a Jabberwocky that has "jaws that bite and claws that catch." The son group decides how they're going to kill the Jabberwocky. And so on for the rest of the characters.

Acting out the poem is when students were able to see what "The Jabberwocky" really meant. And since there's plenty of words that have no real meaning, students see that they construct their own meaning.

After the performance, I asked students to write one more paragraph. This time, we were looking at integrating knowledge and ideas. I showed them the standard quickwrite questions, but told them that they didn't need to write about all four. We were focusing on the first two questions.

How did acting out the poem help you understand? That's the audio and visual version in this case. How did the author use language to create a mood? And of course, include specific concrete evidence and explain using detailed commentary!

Similar Lessons

Big Idea:
Students receive a letter asking them to submit a manuscript for a new children's book about cell organelle. Using analogies, students will compare the cell to a system using analogies, original art work and 3-D models.